Lockdown (Transformers Animated)
Lockdown is a recurring antagonist in Transformers Animated. He is a Cybertronian bounty hunter who is unaligned with the Autobots or Decepticons, but generally works for the latter since he gets paid more by them. He has a tendency to cut parts from his victims and attach them to himself, his hook arm and part of his left leg among these. Lockdown considers these taken parts as "trophies." He has also stolen quick-hardening cement spray, smoke bombs, and Ratchet's EMP generator. He was voiced by , who also voiced Karl Bishop Weyland in the 2010 Alien vs Predator video game and General Shepherd in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Biography One of the earliest known aspects of his life was the fact that Lockdown was an apprentice Cyber Ninja under the direction of the legendary Sensei Yoketron. However, he betrayed his master and later fatally wounded him. He also stole his helmet and the protoforms stored by the Autobots in case they lost the Great War. He apparently really liked the helmet. During the war, Lockdown worked as a bounty hunter. One of his jobs was to bring an intelligence officer who carried vital information in for questioning. He encountered Ratchet, broke off one of the Autobot's forehead chevrons and stole his EMP generator, turning the healing tool into a weapon. During said encounter, Lockdown's right arm was destroyed by Ratchet, causing him to replace it with a decidedly more menacing one (namely the hook he now wields). He also indirectly caused Arcee to lose her memory. On modern-day Earth, Lockdown was hired by Blitzwing to bring in the Autobot presumed to be responsible for Megatron's death, Optimus Prime. He captured Prime using the EMP generator and, impressed by Prime's own personal modifications, stole his axe and forcibly removed Optimus's grapplers, something that traumatized him later on. When the Autobots came to rescue Prime, Lockdown made short work of Bumblebee and Bulkhead. Prowl, on the other hand, proved to be a bigger challenge for him. Lockdown eventually came out on top (but a tire mark smudged on his face). He was about to leave in his ship with his new trophies, when Ratchet, who had been suffering from war flashbacks, came on the scene and soundly thrashed him. It was partially because the stolen EMP generator didn't work on Ratchet himself. Pinning Lockdown, Ratchet painfully removed both Prime's grapplers and his own EMP generator. Lockdown was forced to watch as Ratchet crippled his ship and escaped with a weakened Optimus. The Thrill of the Hunt Arriving on the Moon, Blitzwing remarked that the Decepticons hadn't heard anything from Lockdown since his last contact with the bounty hunter. Hearing Lockdown's name, Lugnut got a little bent out of shape. Lockdown happened to survive the crash and had his ship repaired. Learning of a large bounty on Starscream, Lockdown headed back to Earth, expecting a serious fight to take him down. It turned out that Prowl managed to take down Starscream for him. During a fight over the Decepticon, they realized that Starscream escaped. Prowl offered to help Lockdown, and the bounty hunter offered a suit of armor to assist. Upon landing on Earth, Lockdown and Prowl discovered an usually coward Starscream and Prowl managed to take him down. Lockdown contacted Megatron to set up a meeting, but Prowl wanted to turn him over to the Elite Guard. Lockdown subdued Prowl and took Starscream. At the warehouse, the Autobots arrived with another Starscream. Lockdown tried to take his leave, but Megatron commanded him to stay. Then the two Starscreams revealed that they were clones with bombs in their chests. Lockdown managed to get away in the chaos, then contacted Prowl with an offer of a partnership. Prowl rejected his offer, saying that all the mods were for weak processors, and warned Lockdown never to contact him again, or he wouldd turn him over to the Elite Guard. At some point after he left Earth, Lockdown traded information to Swindle in exchange for weapons. He later returned to Earth and made a deal with Sentinel Prime. In exchange for helping the Autobot commander to capture Decepticons on Earth secretly, the Prime would give him his choice in upgrades. Lockdown succeeded in capturing Swindle, Blitzwing, Sunstorm, Lugnut, and later Ramjet. But the Liar Starscream clone offered him a deal better than Sentinel's, so he gladly double-crossed the Autobot commander. His plan was brought to light and a confounded Sentinel asked why he betrayed him (which was frankly quite silly). Prowl, who came to bust the scene, fought against Lockdown and learned that his sensei was murdered by the unscrupulous bounty hunter. Lockdown subdued Prowl and attempted to strip him of his upgrades. Prowl, having mastered Processor over Matter, freed himself and retrieved Yoketron's helmet as well as an upgrade Lockdown offered him earlier (when they joined forces to capture Starscream). As the battle coming to an end, Lockdown quickly escaped the scene in his ship. Trivia *According to Derrick J. Wyatt's blog, his original concept for Lockdown was as a freakish Frankenstein-like monster. It was altered to better fit Lockdown's more business-like nature. Lockdown's final model, itself, is "reminiscent of skull like head and an undertaker's tux". *Wyatt has explicitly said that Lockdown is not based on Death's Head. However, his ship is named after him... *Lockdown appears to be nothing but an assortment of "trophies". He takes the best parts from his targets, leaving the good ones on display in his ship, and uses the best ones. *The interior of Lockdown's vehicle mode sports a chain-steering wheel and a skull on the gear stick. Now that's hardcore. *On the Galactic Powers and Abilities of Stealth Lockdown, it is stated that his "active camo shorts out in rain". **It could be a reference to the Predators of the Predator movies. The active camo that the Predators use shorts out when exposed to large amounts of water. *It was shown in "The Thrill of the Hunt" that Lockdown's right hand could be fired off his limb, but it was stopped and destroyed by Ratchet, thus the requirement of replacing it with the hook-hand. *In the flashbacks, Lockdown's Cybertronian alt mode is vaguely seen, though from the outline it appears to completely resemble his Earth muscle car form. *When he is seen on the Nemesis, Lockdown appears to have a gap in his "teeth", however this gap was not shown in earlier episodes. Maybe he took a bad hit to the vocal synthesizer after his ship crashed? *The cartoon model for Lockdown pays homage to the older toys. His chest carries what appears to be a rubsign, presumably to symbolize the character's lack of allegiance to any faction. *Despite having lost the EMP generator, Lockdown retains the external engine it comprises in his vehicle mode, as seen in "A Fistful of Energon". Perhaps he found a substitute or a replacement? *There seems to be a Batman: The Brave and The Bold episode based on him: "Duel of The Doublecrossers". The plot is based on a bounty hunter and the main villain's appearance has many similarities with Our bounty hunter: Head base and the chest mark are the most notable. Also, the so-called main character/hero is captured by a skilled bounty hunter, a reference to the episode "Thrill of the Hunt". *According to him, he first became a bounty hunter by betraying Yoketron, but he was hired over a million years ago as a bounty hunter to fight in the Great Wars. *Its possible that Lockdown was protoformed as an Autobot. In the Allspark Almanac, Prowl described his similarities to an average Autobot. The fact that he was a student of Yokotron and that his rubsign is shaped like an Autobot insignia furthers Prowl's theory. Navigation Category:Traitor Category:Murderer Category:Thief Category:Torturer Category:Transformers Villains Category:TV Show Villains Category:Outcast Category:Aliens Category:Sadists Category:Science Fiction Villains Category:Cartoon Villains Category:Fighters Category:Mongers Category:Greedy Category:Kidnapper Category:Criminals Category:Nemesis Category:Ninjas Category:Thrill-Seekers Category:Poachers Category:Immortals Category:Game Changer Category:Pure Evil Category:Evil from the Past Category:Psychopath Category:Faux Affably Evil Category:Karma Houdini Category:Artificial Intelligence Category:Genderless Category:Mercenaries Category:Mutilators Category:Inconclusive Category:Pawns Category:Supervillains Category:Lawful Evil